The Tao of Muhammad Ali »

It begins in 1964, when a sickly twelve-year-old boy stares at a TV image of the soon-to-be-greatest athlete of all time. It grows into a unique and powerful relationship that lasts for more than thirty years and forever changes the author's life. An original and inspiring coming-of-age story now lets you journey with them and experience...The Tao of Muhammad Ali. There are those who study faults in the earth's crust or the habits of storms or galaxies. Others meditate on a single social movement or the work of one man. For Davis Miller, the path to enlightenment coursed through the phenomenon known as Muhammad Ali. Through Ali's influence, Davis teaches himself boxing and the martial arts. Practicing these disciplines, Davis begins to wake and to feel, for the first time, that he is living in each moment. Later, as a young man, Davis comes to understand that Ali taught a generation a new way to see not only boxing, but the world. Because of Ali, Davis evolves from an adolescent paralyzed by sorrow to become a writer who chooses the writing life as part of his personal spiritual odyssey.

Esquire - Matthew DeAbitua

Miller's astounding book, more in the tradition of writers such as Tobias Wolff, Richard Ford and Tim O'Brien than that of mere biographies, is a seminal interpretation of fame, how it affects both those who have it and those who live in its shadow.